Optical properties of polymer microtips investigated with workshop tomographic system

Abstract

We present a novel methodology for optical fiber polymer microtip manufacturing ant testing, which supports the structure optimization process through utilization of an optical diffraction tomography system based on the lateral shear digital holographic microscope. The most important functional parameter of an optical fiber microtip is the output beam distribution in the far-field region, which depends on geometrical properties and refractive index distribution within the microtip. These factors, in turn, are determined by the optical power distribution of the actinic light and the exposition time during the photopolymerization process. In order to obtain a desired light field distribution we propose to govern the manufacturing process by a hybrid opto-numerical methodology, which constitutes a convenient feedback loop for modification of the fabrication parameters. A single cycle of the proposed scheme includes numerical modeling, tomographic measurements and modifications of fabrication process. We introduced the real values of three-dimensional refractive index distribution of microtips into the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, which leaded to controlled modification of technology parameters and finally to improvement of a functional parameter of microtips.